A refugee summit aimed at easing Germany’s federal, state and local governments’ problems with the refugee on Thursday, prolonging what some officials say is an untenable situation threatening to flip sentiment against refugees.

Local governments inform they are required to accept an increasing number of refugees, pushing their resources to the limit, without having a word in the distribution or migration policy. Local governments demand more federal government support and faster deportation procedures.


As the federal statistic office informs the net migration from Ukraine in 2022 alone, at 962,000, was higher than that from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq combined between 2014 and 2016.


Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the federal government will offer more properties to accommodate refugees and wants to meet for a further discussion in spring.

Bundesinnenministerin @NancyFaeser stellt die Ergebnisse des Flüchtlingsgipfels vor. pic.twitter.com/YQUyDIcqKg

— Bericht aus Berlin (@ARD_BaB) February 16, 2023
However, she said the government won’t increase spendings in this area, which will stay at EUR 2.75 billion for this year.


“The mood in the country … it is threatening to tip,” the interior minister of the central state of Hesse, Peter Beuth said after the meeting in Germany’s capital city of Berlin. “That is why it is necessary that we find solutions quickly.”


Head of the German association of counties, Reinhard Sager called the summit a “disappointment” and criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s absence, saying a meeting was overdue.


“We urgently need relief now,” Sager said.


A year into the war in Ukraine, more than 1.06 million refugees, mostly women and children, from Ukraine were registered in Germany, according to Interior Ministry figures.


The new wave of refugees coming from Ukraine was not present and the number of people coming to Germany from Ukraine stabilized, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said.